Common use of Monitoring Framework Clause in Contracts

Monitoring Framework. The first consideration in areas where there is expenditure on a range of support activities is to have an overview of the number of projects supported and the corresponding expenditure. These are the initial outputs of the Programme in this area. Following on from the basic project management data, other information is expected on the outputs, results and longer term outcomes of the Programme. This information is formalised in monitoring and indicator systems. It has been seen that these are relatively well developed with respect to the Financial Instruments and the Enterprise Europe Network. However, in parallel to the less precise specification of anticipated outcomes in the innovation area in the initial Decision and Impact Assessment, monitoring data have also been developed less consistently and in a more diffuse manner. Nonetheless there has been progress in these areas. Monitoring tools for the Europe Innova and PRO INNO initiatives were partially developed during the first period of the initiatives (2006-2009) when they were supported under FP6. The Calls for Proposals for some activities stipulated that bidders had to propose an appropriate set of performance indicators for monitoring progress and assessing the overall impact of the activity. However, from the Commission side, there was no systematic structure to monitor and assess the performance and impact of the projects. Ex-post, the assessment of the two initiatives distinguished between the direct or indirect impacts of the projects and activities35. Direct results were primarily the outcomes achieved by the projects and activities supported, while indirect results were the “spill over effects” beyond the scope of the projects. According to the interviews with the Commission, this approach was systematised during the new phase of the two initiatives and a third category of impacts was added referring to potential impacts beyond the project. Requirements on the project co-ordinators to deliver the relevant data have been included in the respective contracts, although not from the very beginning36. The feedback from the evaluation of the EIP indicators and the Panel discussions on measuring the impact of European innovation policy co- operation initiatives (focusing on PRO INNO) that took place on 19th January 2010 served to further systematise this process. In the case of Europe-Innova initiative37, project co-ordinators have been asked to identify indicators for the direct and indirect impacts of each project and of the potential impact after the end of the project and also to set appropriate targets (quantitative or qualitative). Guidance is provided as to what should be the appropriate indicators but there is also flexibility given the variation in the nature of the projects.